A mystery involving a farmer and his dog is at the heart of a free, 26-part lesson plan that uses hands-on experiments to teach science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) Science School, which is available online, uses inquiry-based learning aligned to the Ohio Department of Education’s fourth-grade standards.
The lesson plans expose students to the careers of forensic science and criminal investigation. Students conduct experiments and solve relevant challenges using critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Videos are shown throughout the lessons that take students into the field with BCI agents and into the laboratory with forensic scientists.
The school was tested in seven elementary schools and released statewide in March.
“Since we can’t take every fourth-grade student and teacher to BCI, where they are solving crimes every single day, we thought creatively about what we could do to make BCI available to teachers and students to accomplish our goal of early learning and excitement for science and related fields,” said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
BCI Science School was designed to be flexible to fit an individual teacher’s needs. For example, some teachers complete one lesson every day and some teachers opt for one lesson every week. While the curriculum was developed for the fourth-grade classroom environment, BCI Science School could easily be adapted for after-school programs, summer camps, and homeschool settings.
To download the lessons or see related videos, visit the
Ohio Attorney General's website.